Paint Nite

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**Note: This is not a sponsored post! I had fun at Paint Nite and wanted to tell you about it!**

Growing up, I was never particularly interested in art. In elementary school, I don't remember feeling excited when it was a day we had art class, and in high school, I took the one art class we were required. I knew I wasn't that great at it. The projects I made were sloppy. I cared a little bit that I wasn't good at it, but not too much.

After college I started scrapbooking but gave it up after a year or two. It started to get a little overwhelming, and of course it was hard to keep the kitties from laying on my expensive paper!

I am extremely impressed by the talents of other artists. When I draw, nothing looks real. It looks like a bad cartoon. Many of my friends are very talented artists and I appreciate their talent and hard work!

This Saturday, I made my first artistic creation since high school. I attended a Paint Nite at the VFW in Dillsburg. A couple of friends of mine were going, so I thought it would be a fun time! I had seen pictures of the paintings people had created at Paint Nite and was always impressed. How was it that everyone's painting looked really good!? They couldn't all be artists, so there must be hope for me. Maybe mine would look good too? I went into the event as an open minded skeptic. Surely I would screw something up, but at least I'd be with friends and would have a good time!

The class began with our instructor, Lisa, explaining how the class would be run. Then we all took the Paint Night Oath and raised our glasses to toast our creativity!

As someone who would never even know how to begin to paint a canvas on her own, I thought the $45 cost of the class was extremely reasonable. All of our materials were provided for us and were at our tables when we got there. (At the end of the class we got a code for 35% off our next paint night. I have since found codes all over the internet... It looks like it will be quite doable to attend more paint nights for only $30.)

Me and Karen getting our paint on!

Our instructor, Lisa, was fun, positive, and easy to follow- which is saying a lot for this painting newbie! She took us step by step through the process of creating our "B-You-tiful Blooms" painting. She had music jamming while we worked at our own pace. An assistant came around if we needed more paint, a paper towel, or individual help.

The venue had food and beverages for purchase. I had a soda. It would have been fun to drink and paint, but it was only 2 o'clock in the afternoon and I had just done a hard run. I didn't think wine would be a good choice after that! But many of the other class participants ate and had something to drink.

I'm not going to lie, there were times I added certain details to my painting that didn't look so hot. Why didn't mine look like the instructor's? Oh yeah, because this is my first shot at it! But as the two hour class went along, I started to figure out how to fix or work with things in my painting that I didn't initially like.

Amazingly, by the time two hours were up, we all had a "B-You-tiful" painting to take home!

Here is mine a little more close up. However, it looks best from farther away!

Signing my name in the bottom right hand corner gave me such joy!

I never did that before!

I hung my painting in our dining room so I can look at it. Eventually, it will go in the guest room because it perfectly matches the color scheme.

It's a little silly, but I smile every time I walk past my painting and feel very proud of it! I know it is nothing compared to what real artists do. I just followed someone's instructions step by step and didn't screw anything up too badly. But for someone who feels like they are not artistic at all and never MADE anything, this painting is special to me!

I will definitely be going to another Paint Nite! Who wants to come with me!?

Have you ever gone to Paint Nite?

Are you an artist?